Japan's politics paralyzed

Since its first day in office, the ruling coalition government in Japan has been racing against time and history.

An unlikely grouping of the two traditional rivals of modern Japanese politics -- the conservative Liberal Democrats and radical Socialists -- the patch-work coalition appeared to be the last-grasp shot of a political structure on its last legs.

To its credit, the government has outlasted the predictions of most pundits who believed it would collapse swiftly because of inherent ideological differences between the two main parties.

But reality and voter anger caught up with it last weekend when the Japanese public went to the polls to vote for a new upper house.

The Socialist Party won just 16 of the 126 seats contested, a record low. The Liberal Democrats won 46 seats which was well below expectations and meant that, for the first time since it was formed four decades ago, the party lost the popular vote.

The government's chief opposition, the New Frontier Party, won national party balloting to claim the title of Japan's most popular political party.

The almost universal thumbs down for the current administration was underscored by a record low voter turnout that indicated just how weary the Japanese are of their politicians.

But on Monday, Murayama vowed to stay on and refused to call an election for the more powerful lower house of parliament, which selects the prime minister.

In a country where taking responsibility for failure usually rests with the leader, the course of action should be fairly obvious for Murayama.

Japan's political system, which was dominated and distorted by forty years of Liberal Democratic Party rule is in desperate need of reform.

For the Japanese, for every door that democratic pressure opens, old party dealing and scheming seems to close in their faces.

-- The Nation, Bangkok